And I bet you did not even realize that I was gone!! But I had a lovely view of this all week:

Yes, dear readers..long at last, I, Claud, have done something quite unheard off in my life..I RELAXED! I took a vacation, thanks to the kind offer of KT who has a beach house on Long Beach Island..and I sat on my butt all week! No small feat as this was my first real live vacation in over 6 years.

So the small beasts and I hopped in the car and drove the 189 miles to the beach. I have to say I was very impressed with their travalabilty…almost fours hours straight in the car..no stops!!

They really did great. Rye insisted on staying home and working..his choice! And Garin had been invited to go with a friend to Delaware and so he did, so I was left to single mommy type vacation and it was good.

Granted, now, I am so itchy I want to rip my skin off, I am starting to peel, the tops of my feet are not happy and I don’t know what I have done to my poor ears, but Oh Lord..I have a tan! Plus the sand fly bites continue to itch days longer than I have expected..and Rye has no sympathy for me! But to watch the little ones experience a “real” beach and the ocean, it was most marvelous.

We even saw dolphins..tons of dolphins swimming off shore.

Meanwhile nothing has come forth from Max..sigh. I am at the point right now of trying not to think about it as I get that desperate anxious depressed feeling. Ah, denial my friend comes to serve me again.

I sense the end of the summer looming and with that my chance for a meeting of any sorts, plus seeing that I have only so much time before my days are rules by school schedules, I am just laying a bit low. I have it in my head that once the falls starts I will have more time to focus on real things, but for now……relaxing, enjoying my children, life, missing the beach………….